High Praise for Rabbis and their Talmud From JPII

JPII lauds the rabbis and their use of the Talmud as a means of “putting Sacred Scripture into practice”:

When we consider Jewish tradition we see how profoundly you venerate Sacred Scripture, the Migra, and in particular the Torah. You live in a special relationship with the Torah, the living teaching of the living God. You study it with love in the Talmud Torah, so as to put it into practice with joy. Its teaching on love, on justice and on the law is reiterated in the Prophets – Nevi’im, and in the Ketuvim. God, his holy Torah, the synagogal liturgy and family traditions, the Land of holiness, are surely what characterize your people from the religious point of view. And these are things that constitute the foundation of our dialogue and of our cooperation. (JPII Address for 25th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate, Thursday, 6 December 1990)

But Jesus Christ said that the rabbinic, Talmudic tradition–the tradition of the elders–makes the Scriptures void (Mark 7;9).

Not satisfied with mocking Jesus’ teaching on the Talmudic tradition and stating that this mockery constitutes the foundation of Vatican-rabbinic dialog and cooperation, JPII then attempts to intertwine the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Talmud:

In the Babylonian Talmud we read: “The world stands upon the single column that is the just man” (Hagigah, 12b). In the Gospel, Jesus Christ tells us that blessed are the peacemakers (Cf. Matt. 5:9). May justice and peace fill our hearts and guide our steps towards the fullness of redemption for all peoples and for the whole universe. May God hear our prayers! (JPII Address for 25th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate, Thursday, 6 December 1990)